Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1887-06-16

upon my soul and threatens 70 cTff<|
it. Others have often question. 4 lae
an idle curiosity prompted shena i
do so, you have shown your sense IN,
held your peace. Your discretion ha
not escaped me; it shall be awardes
/ by qualification Of your suppressef
curiosity. painful though it may b
for me to give it. You have learnef
from the words that have escaped m'
that images Of the past rise ever b..
fore me, images that neyef leavs'ms
day or night, tnat carry me back again
to Paris ana my crime
The old man paused momenthere
for emotion was working strosg Sita,
in him; then recovering himself, he
went on hurriedly:
"My father, himself man of letters
decided to educate me for literary
profession. With sense and discrim.
ination he planned for me a scheme
of education which embodied a wide
range of reading and of travel. l
was to work my way at Eton, to study
for time at Cambridge, then to seek
the great centres oflearning upon the
continent, and to finish in the richly
stored Libraries of the East. 1t was
a grand idea, worthy of a noble and
generous man. Alas that his gener-
osity was so thrown away
at was to Eton, and passed through
the school, making friends here. gain
ing honors there, learning something
Of the classics, and of those difficulties
and disappoiutments that face us all
when We start on the battlefield of
life. AT Cambridge l was scholar
and took honors. l remember now
the gladness Of my poor father when
the news came to him that had
mounted one round Of the ladder
before me. l hear again his hearty
words of congratulation, feel again
the warm pressure of his hand, under.
go once more the welcome labor of
writing to my mother. It was hap
py time, for | was full of hope and
confidence in my own powers, and
around me were those whose every
thought breathed. a prayer for my
welfare and happiness.
Then it came that l should set
out for Paris. 1t was with reluctance
that they let me leave home, for at
that date the first murmurs of the
mighty torrent of revolution which
swept over France were beginning TO
be heard.
The writings Of Voltaire ard
Rousseau were commencing to bear
their fruit. Agitators in the byways
We're decrying the King aud demand
ing liberty; as the low moaning Of the
wind before the storm, so were these
the warnings of what was to come
But | had no fears then: rather
hoped to learn much from seeing a
country whose people had commenced
to test the truths which the great
philosophers of so many years had
preached in their writings aud in
their teachings. You must remember.
too, that none could then foresee that:
under the cloak of freedom, men
would lose their instincts OF humanity,
and would become as wild beasts: that
rapine and vice would prevail where
virtue and goodness had been; that
women and children would be sacri
feed TO ambition and to fear; that the
land would lie under the curse of
misrule. My father could not foresee
this, or should never have left the
comfortable home in the midlands and
have faced the dangers that soon
awaited me in Paris. When arrived
in that great capitol, it was hard to
believe that beneath that gayety aud
and brightness lay hidden a great
stratum Of discomfort and poverty and
crime. II was yet harder to believe,
as one heard the frienzied cries of
welcome that greeted King aud Queen,
that the cries Were q mockery, that
the voices were but empty sounds.
That was the year l7SS, and the
Bastile. had not yet fallen; Pitt him
self scarce gave heed to the rumors.
Why then should /, a student, foresee
beneath this wealth of loyalism a
rising power that would crush and
kill both the lauders and the lauded7
so ] began my studies at the uui.
versity. Making few friends, retiring
to my lonely rooms at night with my
books, had little opportunity for
noting the changes that spre d so
rapidly over the political aud even
the private life of the cOuntry. Yet
the first eomings Of the approaching
storm did not entirely escape me,
One day student. who had frequent